Category: International Affairs,

A Crusade In The Philippines Takes On The Big Brands Behind Plastic Waste

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

With a growing economy and a swelling middle class, people are consuming at a torrid pace — electronic devices, packaged foods, fancy toiletries — goods either made of plastic or wrapped in it.

… In many places, informal cadres of waste pickers collect what they can sell to recyclers. But much of the plastic cannot be recycled. So no one collects it, and it drifts. Everywhere.

…The same problem besets them all — it’s not just too much plastic but it’s the stuff that can’t be recycled. There’s nowhere to put it, except in landfills, which are few, and from which plastic eventually migrates, by wind or water.

…Crispian Lao, who used to be in the plastics industry and [now, in a somewhat Orwellian twist,] is now head of the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability. The group represents …companies like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and others that make and package consumer goods.

Lao praises the sachets for [being easily identifiable] in a market where counterfeit goods are common. “There’s also the health issue,” he says: Sachets don’t pose health risks to the consumers in places where water to wash reusable containers might be contaminated. [The peanut gallery imagines this is the argument against a system where the consumer could bring their own packaging for the goods they are buying? Because corporate savior?]

…[Research] showed that the biggest sources of plastic waste washing into the oceans are in Southeast and South Asia.

Fingers were pointed.

…People in the Philippines were angry — among them, Grate. It was blaming the victim, not the manufacturers.

…Talk of future recycling still puts the burden of cleanup on the consumer. “The problem,” Grate says, “is that most companies … feel their responsibility ends the moment they sell it. That’s one of the biggest injustices here.”

…As for the pledge [to sell all products in recyclable packaging by] 2025, no one knows how companies will do it and how much it will cost to set up a huge recycling system across the islands of the Philippines.

…The plan was to challenge companies. Says Hernandez: “If we cannot recycle it or compost this material, then you should not be producing them in the first place.”

…Grate and other local activists in the Philippines proposed a novel action, something no one had done before: brand audits.

These environmental groups did regular beach cleanups, which helped bring attention to the problem even if the beaches were covered with trash again a few months later. But now they wanted to compile a list of the brand logos emblazoned on the plastic trash and publicize them for all to see.

A Crusade In The Philippines Takes On The Big Brands Behind Plastic Waste : Goats and Soda : NPR

hmmmm

How Inuit Parents Raise Kids Without Yelling — And Teach Them To Control Anger

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Modern Parenting,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Oral storytelling is what’s known as a human universal. For tens of thousands of years, it has been a key way that parents teach children about values and how to behave.

Modern hunter-gatherer groups use stories to teach sharing, respect for both genders and conflict avoidance, a recent study reported, after analyzing 89 different tribes.

***

Briggs quickly realized something remarkable was going on in these families: The adults had an extraordinary ability to control their anger.

“They never acted in anger toward me, although they were angry with me an awful lot,” Briggs told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview.

Even just showing a smidgen of frustration or irritation was considered weak and childlike, Briggs observed.

…She was left with a lingering question: How do Inuit parents instill this ability in their children? How do Inuit take tantrum-prone toddlers and turn them into cool-headed adults?

…Turns out, the mom was executing a powerful parenting tool to teach her child how to control his anger.

…Across the board, all the moms mention one golden rule: Don’t shout or yell at small children.

…”With little kids, you often think they’re pushing your buttons, but that’s not what’s going on. They’re upset about something, and you have to figure out what it is.”

…Traditionally, the Inuit saw yelling at a small child as demeaning. It’s as if the adult is having a tantrum; it’s basically stooping to the level of the child, Briggs documented.

…For thousands of years, the Inuit have relied on an ancient tool with an ingenious twist*: “We use storytelling to discipline,” Jaw says.

…Oral stories passed down from one generation of Inuit to the next, designed to sculpt kids’ behaviors in the moment.

…Inuit parents have an array of stories to help children learn respectful behavior, too. For example, to get kids to listen to their parents, there is a story about ear wax, says film producer Myna Ishulutak.

“My parents would check inside our ears, and if there was too much wax in there, it meant we were not listening,” she says.

And parents tell their kids: If you don’t ask before taking food, long fingers could reach out and grab you, Ishulutak says. 

…When a[n Inuit] child in the camp acted in anger — hit someone or had a tantrum — there was no punishment. Instead, the parents waited for the child to calm down and then, in a peaceful moment, did something that Shakespeare would understand all too well: They put on a drama.

…In a nutshell, the parent would act out what happened when the child misbehaved, including the real-life consequences of that behavior.

The parent always had a playful, fun tone. And typically the performance starts with a question, tempting the child to misbehave.

For example, if the child is hitting others, the mom may start a drama by asking: “Why don’t you hit me?”

Then the child has to think: “What should I do?” If the child takes the bait and hits the mom, she doesn’t scold or yell but instead acts out the consequences. “Ow, that hurts!” she might exclaim.

The mom continues to emphasize the consequences by asking a follow-up question. For example: “Don’t you like me?” or “Are you a baby?” She is getting across the idea that hitting hurts people’s feelings, and “big girls” wouldn’t hit.

…In other words, the dramas offer kids a chance to practice controlling their anger, Miller says, during times when they’re not actually angry.

This practice is likely critical for children learning to control their anger. 

How Inuit Parents Raise Kids Without Yelling — And Teach Them To Control Anger : Goats and Soda : NPR

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*Are we so sure this approach or at least variations to it weren’t more widespread if not universal before written communications, etc.? Twist? Really?

Men in Spain were almost completely wiped out 4,500 to 4,000 years ago

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Iberia’s population has changed drastically over time, from its hunter-gatherer origins before the arrival of farming 7,500 years ago, through to the medieval period and modern times.

…An influx of new people during the later Copper Age. …By the Early Bronze Age, 500 years later, these newcomers represented about 40% of Iberia’s genetic pool – but virtually 100% of their male lineages. 

…The same shift was not observed for women whose DNA remained relatively ‘local.’

…’We reveal sporadic contacts between Iberia and North Africa by 2500 BC and, by 2000 BC, the replacement of 40% of Iberia’s ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people with Steppe ancestry.’ 

What is even more striking now is that both Iberia and India had a similar source – a population of early metal-using stock breeders, who lived to the north of the Black Sea on Russian steppe lands, 5,000 years ago. 

They fanned out in both directions, west across Europe and east into Asia, their based  economy, domesticated horses and wheeled wagons giving them a crucial advantage over the indigenous farming populations. 

Moreover, they are also thought to have brought the Indo-European languages spoken across Europe and India today. 

Around 2,500 BC, the researchers found, Iberians began living alongside newcomers from central Europe who carried recent ancestry from those people on the Russian steppe. 

…’Resolving the population dynamics in western Europe during the Copper and Bronze Ages is a big step towards understanding the origins of the Celtic languages, which were spoken across western Europe before the rise of the Roman Empire.’ 

How men in Spain were almost completely wiped out between 4,500 and 4,000 years ago | Daily Mail Online

hmmm

A little surprised the article did not include any known corresponding social/political history. It seems there is a hypothesis to be drawn between the disappearance of a male population and a sustained pattern of invasion and colonization that almost merits mentioning here.

“Egg Boy”: Teen eggs Australian Senator Fraser Anning who blamed Muslims for Christchurch massacre

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Pacific Basin,, Race,Leave a comment

A teenage boy cracked an egg on the head of a far-right Australian politician as he spoke to reporters in Melbourne on Saturday. In the footage, Queensland Sen. Fraser Anning is shown immediately turning and striking the boy in the face before taking another swing.

…Victoria Police said they arrested the boy but later released him without charge.

…Anning was also criticized for tweets he posted following the shooting. “Does anyone still dispute the link between Muslim immigration and violence?” he wrote.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison quickly condemned Anning’s comments on Friday.

“Egg Boy”: Teen eggs Australian Senator Fraser Anning who blamed Muslims for Christchurch massacre – CBS News

hmmm

Bisping: Alleged victim is a bit of a d-ck to press charges against McGregor

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

“Sometimes, you’re not f—king camera ready, because you know that’s going on Instagram, it’s gonna do the rounds, and they’re gonna show the mates. Sometimes, you’re just like ‘You know what, I’d rather just shake your hand, and have a conversation with you for five minutes, and have a real connection. I’m sure that would be more worthwhile for you.’

“But everybody wants it for the ‘gram,” he continued. “It’s all about Instagram, they want to get that picture. And he flipped. He lost his f—king temper and he grabbed the phone and smashed it.

“It’s not a big deal. It really, really isn’t.”

Bisping: Alleged victim is a bit of a d-ck to press charges against McGregor – Bloody Elbow

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Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont on the future of Spain and Europe

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, UncategorizedLeave a comment

After an intense seven-year campaign of street mobilizations and a popularly organized referendum in October 2017, Madrid responded with a premeditated campaign of violence. The pro-independence majority in the Catalan parliament, led by Puigdemont, nonetheless kept its promise: It declared independence from Spain later in the same month.  Within minutes, the Spanish Senate voted to dissolve the Catalan parliament and schedule new elections to replace it.

…Despite gaping holes and inconsistencies in the state’s case against them for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, it is widely expected all of those currently on trial will be found guilty and will serve long prison terms.

…Respect for identities, for the individual and for “the Other,” is the only possible basis for unity. If this respect is not there, we are talking about something very different, something that has very little to do with democracy.  

…We are insisting so strongly on respect for the human right of self-determination. We believe doing so puts democracy to the test. And attacking this right, as the Spanish government is now doing, is precisely what puts democracy in danger. This is why we believe that Catalonia is everybody’s business. A retreat from democracy anywhere on the planet affects all of us democrats in the world.

…This is especially the case within the European Union. I am deeply troubled as democracy recedes in Poland and Hungary. I view it as very much my concern. And I am convinced many Europeans and Spanish nationals are concerned when they see that a member state of the EU like Spain is persecuting people and annulling fundamental rights. Why? Because they understand that, in the end, it will affect them.  

…We have been attacked every which way by the European populist parties, starting with the Front National in France. Why? Because all these populist movements are rooted in a very dangerous form of nationalism.

…The degeneration of democracy in Spain is real. The latest indicators from a variety of international monitoring groups show that Spain is in retreat when it comes to fundamental rights like freedom of expression. For example, the Council of Europe’s Greco Group, which charts political and judicial corruption, has issued two reports sternly warning of the deficiencies of the Spanish judicial system and alleging that it falls short of basic European standards. And of the 11 recommendations for reform in the first report, issued a few years back, not one has been implemented. They were thus forced to issue a second report reminding Spain of a decision of the European Court of Human Rights condemning Spain’s violation of fundamental liberties by its sentencing of people simply exercising their right to free expression.

…People who come to Catalonia on their own and observe things realize quickly that it is a transversal movement with a spectrum of ideology stretching from anti-system beliefs to liberal-conservatives. It has both Christian Democrats and anarchists. It is a very plural movement, and thus cannot in any way be described as classist.

Seventy percent of all Catalans have a father or a mother, or both, from outside of Catalonia. This shows that Catalonia is, quite fortunately, not even close to being an ethnic reality! We believe a Catalan is anyone who wishes to become one. And no one is excluded from this process. Today there are many people with no Catalan roots at all who have decided to become Catalans. We are in no way a society built on the idea of ethnic homogeneity.

…The Catalan language provides us with cohesion and helps to give us a collective identity. But there are, within the culture, a wide variety of attachments to it. Knowing this affects our approach to immigration. Our language-immersion policy is anti-classist because it aims to ensure that the traditionally Catalan-speaking elites not be the only Catalan speakers. It has gone from being a vehicle of cohesion for some to being a vehicle of cohesion and democratic participation for many. This is why we jealously guard the Catalan linguistic model and see it as yet another proof of the non-ethnic nature of our movement.

…We have used linguistic immersion to insure that virtually everyone is in a position to express themselves comfortably in both of the official languages of Catalonia [Catalan and Spanish]. Other countries have approached issues like this in very different ways, assigning certain students to schools in one language and another group of students to schools in another language. This is precisely how ethnic separation begins. We have always fought vigorously against this.

…I am a European citizen and free man with all the rights of any other European citizen, like Mr. Macron or Mrs. Merkel, except in one place in the world, which is called Spain. If I go to Spain, I will be arrested and face the possibility of 25 to 30 years in prison. Outside of Spain, I am free to go anywhere with no charges pending against me.

So how is this possible? Well, it brings us back to the shortcomings in Spain’s culture of democracy. There is a European legal structure that guarantees me fundamental rights that are not, in fact, recognized in Spain. This is possible because in the European Union — where admittedly there still is a lot of work to be done on political integration — respect for rights generally exists. In Spain, they take an à la carte approach to justice.

Exclusive: Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont on the future of Spain and Europe | Salon.com

hmmmm

Melania Trump ‘mistook former female Australia foreign minister for partner’ | Daily Mail Online

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

Julie Bishop, who was Australia’s first female foreign minister and deputy leader of the Liberal Party, said the first lady made the mistake after President Donald Trump struck up a conversation with her partner David Panton.

…Melania, standing by, assumed David was the foreign minister and she said to me: “Julie, will you be coming to my ladies’ lunch tomorrow?”,’ Bishop said of the encounter at the UN General Assembly Leaders’ week in 2017.

Melania Trump ‘mistook former female Australia foreign minister for partner’ | Daily Mail Online

Damn the Trumps’ staff sucks. Sure, she should have known. She also should have had someone with her to help avoid gaffes like that. If she did have anyone there, they clearly weren’t of much use.

Algeria’s Bouteflika Returns From Switzerland Facing Mass Protests

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,Leave a comment

Students have led many of the demonstrations against Bouteflika. 

…Many protesters say the ailing president, who suffered a stroke in 2013, is a puppet leader used by a small group of civilian and military figures to rule the country. As The New York Times noted, Bouteflika has not publicly addressed the country in seven years. “Barely able to talk because of his stroke, he is represented at government rallies by his framed portrait, known as ‘The Frame.’ “

Algeria’s stagnant economy has added to the discontent, driving young Algerians into the streets.

Algeria’s Bouteflika Returns From Switzerland Facing Mass Protests : NPR

hmmmm

Jim Mattis’ Resignation Was Just a Beginning. When the Commander in Chief Is ‘Unfit,’ What’s a General to Do?

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, International Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Military,Leave a comment

This month it was reported that the White House plans to transform America’s alliances into a protection racket with a “cost plus 50” plan that would require allies to pay 150 percent of the cost of hosting U.S. troops, with a good behavior discount for those countries willing to take their marching orders from Washington, D.C.

…In light of the reported Trump plan to make America’s longtime allies pay what amounts to protection money, this is an important moment to revisit the resignation in protest last December of Defense Secretary James Mattis. It was a milestone in modern U.S. history that put in bold relief an avalanche of criticism from top national-security officials, all with a common theme: The commander in chief is unfit.

…In 280 characters or less, Trump had thus thrown U.S. strategy in the Middle East and Southwest Asia into disarray, with aftershocks quickly rumbling in capitals throughout the region and as far away as Moscow. 

…There would be no careful preparation and planning for the U.S. military chain-of-command, no advance consultation with close U.S. allies whose security would be jeopardized, no strategy to inform the vast U.S. government bureaucracy and the multinational anti-ISIS coalition how best to respond to the change of missions and goals.

…Mattis had been increasingly at odds with the president on a list of weighty issues, from Trump’s frequent contention that the NATO alliance is a swindle and the European Union “a foe,” to his inexplicable deference to Putin in preference to his own intelligence community.

…Trump took Pentagon officials by surprise by tweeting out a ban on transgender people from serving in the military, a move which reportedly “appalled” a vacationing Mattis. In May of 2018, Trump rejected the advice of his generals and top national security aides in moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, essentially ending the United States’ venerable role as mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That same month Trump unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal over the strong objections of close advisers and fellow signatories to the deal–including Great Britain, France and Germany.

At his summer 2018 summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Trump blindsided Pentagon leaders by cancelling military exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces on the peninsula, a position top U.S. military officers have warned is dangerously eroding the readiness of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed on the peninsula. After meeting privately with Kim, Trump even called the exercises “provocative” and “war games,” adopting the rhetoric of Pyongyang.

…Trump followed that summit with an extraordinary burst of disruptive diplomacy during a single week overseas in July 2018, during which he publicly upbraided close allies, threw a NATO Summit in Brussels into disarray, and shattered diplomatic protocol by criticizing his host British Prime Minister Theresa May while visiting Great Britain and cheerleading for “Brexit.”

Trump then traveled to Helsinki where, in a baffling performance, he met privately with Vladimir Putin, confiscated his interpreter’s notes after the meeting, and then publicly gave the Russian president’s denials of election interference equal weight to the conclusion of his own intelligence agencies. In a post-summit interview, Trump even suggested that the United States might be reluctant to come to the defense of new NATO ally Montenegro, whose “aggressive” people could start “World War III,” mouthing the talking points of Putin and casting doubt over NATO’s bedrock commitment of collective defense.

…Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns described watching Trump at the NATO and Helsinki Summits last summer as nothing less than “Orwellian.”
[emphasis: peanut gallery]

…Mattis instructed staff to distribute the resignation letter widely. Journalists and close Washington observers immediately recognized the letter for what it was–a damning critique of the commander-in-chief. After nearly two years on the job, the president who emerges clearly from Mattis’ carefully worded resignation is dismissive of the U.S. alliances that provide the sinew in America’s superpower reach, and is unable or unwilling to grasp the profound threat to U.S. interests and …international order posed by authoritarian regimes like Russia and China.

…“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” Mattis concluded in his letter.

…McChrystal left no doubt that he believes the commander Mattis walked away from is not only fundamentally dishonest, but also “immoral.” That assessment provides a “pretty good summary of what most generals think about the President’s character,” Admiral James Stavridis, a former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, wrote recently in Time Magazine.

…“I’m not sure that a lot of my fellow Americans fully appreciate the fact that there are only two people in the country who can give a lawful order to launch a military strike and start a war, and one of them just resigned to protest the poor judgment of the other,” retired General Barry McCaffrey, former commander of U.S. Southern Command and a decorated combat veteran, said in an interview.

….U.S. policy in the Middle East has …devolved into strategic incoherence, with top Trump administration officials traveling to the region and announcing long-term conditions for the withdrawal of the 2,000 U.S. troops that is already well underway, and then backtracking after being contradicted by President Trump’s tweets.  In another jarring break with civil-military tradition, U.S. Central Command chief General Joseph Votel recently publicly disagreed with his commander-in-chief’s decision to pull troops out of Syria, stating unequivocally in an interview with CNN that ISIS has not been defeated. Then Trump reversed course yet again and announced that roughly 400 U.S. troops would be staying in Syria after all, along with allied partners.

……..In late January, leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community testified before Congress and publicly contradicted the president’s claims that a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons is no longer a threat, that ISIS has been defeated, and that the situation at the southern border with Mexico amounts to a national security emergency.

…In mid-February, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Europe and lashed out at the United States’ closest and most important NATO allies for failing to fall obediently in line behind the Trump administration’s unilateral decision to abandon a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran.

…To cap off the tumultuous month, Trump’s late-February summit with Kim Jong Un in Vietnam collapsed in disarray, with Trump abruptly walking away from the negotiating table and foregoing a planned signing ceremony and North Korea resuming construction at a long-range missile testing facility.

…“We now have an impulsive and ill-informed president who routinely exhibits fantastical thinking on a host of major national security issues, surrounded by a lot of ‘acting’ cabinet officials who have never even been confirmed by the Senate, to include the acting Secretary of Defense, and senior aides who are beleaguered and frequently publicly humiliated by their boss,” said McCaffrey.

..The president’s stubborn disregard for factual truth, skewing real-world policies on issues ranging from North Korea’s nuclear weapons to the supposed “defeat” of ISIS, and Trump’s insistence on viewing everything through a partisan prism that politicizes all issues and erodes public trust in non-partisan institutions such as the U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The critique also highlights Trump’s belittling and transactional approach that has badly undermined venerable alliances, even as Trump maintains chummy and inexplicably obsequious relations with murderous dictators, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un.

…”There is an elephant standing in America’s living room right now staring us in the face: the President of the United States may well be compromised by the Russians, which I truly believe is the case. And he is unfit to serve.”

…Uniformed leaders know that the U.S. military’s position as far and away the most respected institution in America is founded on its nonpartisan status and ethos, and they see that tradition being steadily eroded by the commander-in-chief’s frequent attempts to expropriate the military as one more cudgel in hyper-partisan battles with his political opponents. Historically that is a step on the road to autocracy, wherein the military becomes loyal to the autocrat it serves rather than the Constitution and rule of law the U.S. military is pledged to defend.

…”Presidents wear many hats, and it is not unusual for them to use the military as a prop to burnish their image …but criticizing the political opposition at a visit with the troops–when the troops are forbidden by law to engage in politics–is a dangerous path to walk down.”

…When Trump broke with decades of tradition last summer and revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, a frequent critic, many senior intelligence and military officials saw it as further evidence that Trump was politicizing dissent in national security circles and abusing the powers of the presidency to stifle free speech. 

…Whatever clarity the Mueller report provides may come at the cost of a constitutional crisis, however, with profoundly dangerous implications for the nation’s security. At a similar culminating moment in the Watergate investigation, for instance, then Defense Secretary James Schlesinger admitted to taking the extraordinary, extra-constitutional step of telling senior U.S. military leaders to ignore orders from an embattled and increasingly paranoid President Richard Nixon–including a potential nuclear launch order–unless Schlesinger had signed off on them first.

Jim Mattis’ Resignation Was Just a Beginning. When the Commander in Chief Is ‘Unfit,’ What’s a General to Do?

Anyone who is surprised by any of this wasn’t paying attention during the campaign.

Ritual animal slaughter law leaves Belgium’s Muslims and Jews facing shortages, price hikes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,, Religion,Leave a comment

Belgian law had long required animals to be stunned before slaughter to prevent unnecessary pain. It did, however, grant an exception for ritual slaughter, a practice in Islamic and Jewish religious laws in which the animals are not stunned first. Both halal and kosher slaughter require the use of a very sharp knife to slit the animal’s throat in one stroke and sever the major structures and vessels.

…A new law in the Flanders region of Belgium bans the practices required for both halal and kosher meat. That has meant such products have become harder to find and more expensive in recent months.

…Many Muslims feel the laws are a result of Islamophobia rather than a concern for animal rights. For Jews, they are also an uncomfortable reminder of a darker period in European history. In 1933, one of the first laws the Nazis enacted was a ban on kosher animal slaughter.

…With the help of an American legal fund, a group of Muslim and Jewish organizations have taken legal action and hope to overturn the new law. The Belgian Constitutional Court heard their arguments in January and is expected to rule on the case within weeks.

Ritual animal slaughter law leaves Belgium’s Muslims and Jews facing shortages, price hikes

sigh…

Pictures: the Tibetan uprising and the Dalai Lama’s exile

On By peanutgallerynhIn East Asia,, Religion,Leave a comment

March 10 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1959 Tibet uprising against Chinese rule. The rebellion ultimately failed, leading to the decades-long exile of the 14th Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader.

In the six decades since he escaped to India, the Dalai Lama has evolved into an international icon of nonviolence and spiritual aspirations, traveling frequently and being hosted by political and religious leaders as well as celebrities around the world.

Pictures: the Tibetan uprising and the Dalai Lama’s exile — Quartz

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Gal Gadot hits out at Netanyahu over ‘Jewish people’ comment

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

…”Israel is not a state for all its citizens. According to the nation-state law that we passed, Israel is the state of the Jewish people — and belongs to them alone,” Netanyahu wrote.

…”Love thy neighbor,” the Israeli actress said Sunday on Instagram, where she has 28.3 million followers.

“It is not a matter of right or left, Arabs or Jews, secular or religious,” she added. “It is a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace, and of our tolerance for each other. It is our responsibility to shine hope and light for a better future for our children.”

…On Monday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin weighed in on the issue, condemning recent “unacceptable discourse” about Arab citizens of Israel.

“There will be no second-class citizens and second-class voters,” he said during a speech. “All of us will all be equal, all of us, Jews and Arabs, all citizens of Israel.”

…Israel’s approval of a “nation-state” law, which declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and downgrades Arabic as an official language, dismayed the country’s minorities last year.

…The [Arab Israeli] minority makes up around 20 percent of the country’s population.

Gal Gadot hits out at Netanyahu over ‘Jewish people’ comment

hmmmm

It’s still ridiculously easy to manipulate Facebook with anger

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Some of the content is similar to those Facebook uncovered in the US: alt-right, nationalist, angry, often hateful of minorities. There’s “Politicised”, a group with a big Union Jack sharing content about how gay Christians are bullied by other members of the LGBT community. Another is straight out of the alt-right handbook: “Being A leftist is easy!” it says, “if anyone disagrees with you, call them a racist!”.

Then it gets slightly weirder. The network’s puppeteers “operated fake accounts to engage in hate speech”, Facebook said. But one account was calling for the leader of UKIP to be charged with hate speech. Another fake group was called “Anti Far Right Extremists”. Another, “Halal Speech”. The network was coordinated, but coordinated to share information which was completely contradictory.

…The purpose of this network, why it existed, wasn’t to try to convince you and the rest of the UK of something you didn’t believe beforehand. The point wasn’t to replace one belief with another. Lying wasn’t the full picture. No, it was cleverer than that.

This network wasn’t trying to change your mind, it was trying to confirm it. [emphasis: peanut gallery] To make you even surer that you are right, and make you angrier with the people who are wrong – the internet’s “leftards” or “racists” – than you were before. The messages were poles apart, and all of it was calculated to provoke exactly the same response: outrage. This strategy, a similar one to those uncovered on Twitter in the past, is all about inhabiting both ends of the political spectrum, and to pull them further and further, angrier and angrier apart.

This wasn’t about changing what people thought. It was about changing what people feel, and the issues themselves have always been whatever people are angriest about. We’ve seen online influence campaigns touch on almost everything on which societies profoundly disagree: police brutality, minority rights, gun rights, transgender issues, anti-vaxx, anti-GMO, online privacy concerns, and alleged government corruption. Wedge issues that inflame existing social tensions.

…This wasn’t fake news. This was a covert online influence operation.

…Given the strategy involved, my bet is that the people behind this network are those who would benefit from the UK becoming more divided.

It’s still ridiculously easy to manipulate Facebook with anger | WIRED UK

sigh….

Ocean Cleanup Of Plastic Pollution In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Breaks

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

But as Slat, now 24, recently discovered with the beta tester for his design, plastic occasionally drifts out of its U-shaped funnel. The other issue with the beta tester, called System 001, is that last week, a 60-feet-long end section broke off.

…”In principle, I think we are relatively close to getting it working,” Slat said in an interview Saturday with NPR’s Michel Martin. “It’s just that sometimes the plastic is also escaping again. Likely what we have to do is we have to speed up the system so that it constantly moves faster than the plastic.”

For the material failure, Slat said his team will probably try to locally reinforce the system to combat the problem of material fatigue.

“If you have a paper clip and you move that back and forward many times, essentially the material gets weaker,” he said. “That’s likely what has happened with material of the cleanup system.”

…He estimates that about 8 million metric tons of plastic go into the ocean each year — roughly the equivalent of one dump truck full of plastic every minute.

Ocean Cleanup Of Plastic Pollution In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Breaks : NPR

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